Dead Friend (aka The Ghost, 2004) Movie Review

If you’re not too hung up on originality, “The Ghost” isn’t too much a waste of time. Oh sure, it’s yet another Dark Hair Ghost Story, where the ghost at hand is a vengeful female that keeps showing up in the background, standing with her hair draped over her face, and you...

August 23rd, 2004 | Read More

Old Boy (2003) Movie Review

Chan-Wook Park’s “Oldboy” comes to us on a wave of expectation, having garnered a series of high profile accolades at film festivals around the world, including the Grand Prix at Cannes and several of the Grand Bell awards in its native South Korea. Add to this almost unanimous acclaim...

August 13th, 2004 | Read More

Face (2004) Movie Review

Dark Hair Ghost Stories from Asia are a dime a dozen nowadays. If you threw a pebble at the continent, you’d probably hit 10 films in the genre on the first thud. Really, it’s a bit disconcerting how generic the film industries in Asia have become in the seven years since the break-through...

August 9th, 2004 | Read More

The Big Swindle (2004) Movie Review

To give credit where credit is due, first-time writer/director Dong-hun Choi certainly knows where he’s going and how to get there with his caper film “The Big Swindle”. Oh sure, the movie is highly derivative in nature, and its caper is just a sideshow compared to the double-crosses...

July 22nd, 2004 | Read More

Clementine (2004) Movie Review

In terms of Korean cinema, you’d call “Clementine” a B-movie. In any case, it’s certainly not a very good movie, and perhaps that has more to do with the hackneyed script than it does with the obnoxious soundtrack, or even the fact that they’re using a guy who is either...

July 10th, 2004 | Read More

Mokpo Harbor, Gangster’s Paradise (2004) Movie Review

“Mokpo Harbor, Gangster’s Paradise” is a Korean Gangster Comedy, so right away there are certain things you can expect. As with the “My Wife is a Gangster” films and various others, 90% of the film will be played for laughs — that is, until the moment (always toward...

June 18th, 2004 | Read More

Jakarta (2000) Movie Review

Cho Sin Jung’s “Jakarta” is a good way to spend 90 minutes — that is, if one has 90 minutes to waste. It’s the kind of movie that requires an audience to, as the saying goes, “just go along with it”. To think too much during the movie’s run is to encounter...

June 8th, 2004 | Read More

H (2002) Movie Review

The secret to a successful thriller is simple: an involving storyline for the audience to be sucked in by and involving characters to take the audience through that story. Mood and atmosphere will only get you so far; you need flesh and blood to make the mood and atmosphere matter. The Korean “Tell...

June 6th, 2004 | Read More

Crazy Marriage (2002) Movie Review

Apparently being a part-time college professor in South Korea is not nearly as prestigious as you would think. The main character in Ha Yu’s “Crazy Marriage” (aka “Marriage is a Crazy Thing”) is Joon-young (Woo-seong Kam), a young, mid-20s part-time English Literature Professor...

June 3rd, 2004 | Read More

Ring Virus (1999) Movie Review

Fans of the Naomi Watts horror film “The Ring” may be surprise to learn that the US remake wasn’t the first attempt at redoing the story. It was remade in South Korea in 1999, beating Gore Verbinski’s remake by 3 years. While not as good as the original film, the Korean version...

May 19th, 2004 | Read More

Mr. Handy (aka Mr. Hong, 2004) Movie Review

If you’ve seen your share of South Korean comedies in the last few years, you might be wondering if the industry has stopped making adult comedies altogether. With the likes of “Sex is Zero” and “Slave Love” seemingly dominating the marketplace, one might get the impression...

May 16th, 2004 | Read More

Bloody Beach (2000) Movie Review

If you were wondering if director In Soo Kim and his five writers (count’em, five) patterned their Teen Slasher “Bloody Beach” after their American counterparts, all you need to do is watch what happens after two characters engage in some promiscuous sex in the woods. Yep, that’s...

May 11th, 2004 | Read More

The Record (2000) Movie Review

It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, then the makers of “The Record” must adore “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. But while the South Korean film is an obvious clone of the popular American film, it nevertheless manages...

May 7th, 2004 | Read More

Spirit of Jeet Keun Do (aka Once Upon a Time in High School, 2004) Movie Review

I must confess that in middle school I got into too many fights and in high school I spent most of my time sleeping in class or reading the history of Jesse James and Billy the Kid. But at least no one ever tried to stab me with a pen, and the teachers certainly never shaved my head or beat me with a...

May 2nd, 2004 | Read More

Live or Die (2003) Movie Review

Anyone looking for an excellent reason to die young should immediately rush out and buy this waste of a DVD. Although billed as an action/comedy, is has little action and the only laughs are unintentional ones caused by the poor subtitles. Worse yet, the film figures the legacy of Bruce Lee into the...

April 17th, 2004 | Read More

Comrade (aka Double Agent, 2003) Movie Review

The words “double agent” and “espionage” conjure up exciting images, especially when being used to describe a movie. It’s sad that this Korean import doesn’t live up to those expectations. By choosing to focus more on narrative and the psyches of the characters instead...

April 14th, 2004 | Read More

Spy Girl (2004) Movie Review

Although it opens with the main character doing his “business” in a bathroom stall, Han-chun Park’s “Spy Girl” is actually not another “Sex is Zero”. Oh sure, the film indulges in bathroom humor about once or twice, but it never really ventures into gross-out...

March 29th, 2004 | Read More

Slave Love (aka 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant, 2004) Movie Review

Actress Ji-won Ha played the straight man in the gross-out comedy “Sex is Zero” and an adult in the horror film “Phone”. And apparently she’s tired of playing it straight, which may explain why the actress has elected to play her character in “Love Slave” (aka...

March 23rd, 2004 | Read More

The Uninvited (2003) Movie Review

“The Uninvited”, the latest horror film out of South Korea, opens strong, with interior designer Jung-won (Shin-yang Park) being inexplicably haunted by two dead girls he saw in the subway. Forty minutes later, it’s revealed that a troubled woman name Yun (Ji-hyun Jun) can see the dead...

March 15th, 2004 | Read More

Paradise Villa (2000) Movie Review

A penny pincher who looks like a porn star, a man whose wife may be cheating on him with a fund manager, a woman hawking a water purifier, a nosy old man, a demure piano teacher, and two teenagers filming the going-ons of their apartment building’s tenants to sell on the black market. All this,...

March 14th, 2004 | Read More